


Shadow

by Adara_Rose



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Introspection, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-20 04:23:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1496515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adara_Rose/pseuds/Adara_Rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To stand in someone's shadow is never easy. To know, from when you are a small child, that you are second rate, is a heavy burden to bear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadow

To stand in someone's shadow is never easy. To know, from when you are a small child, that you are second-rate, is a heavy burden to bear.

But he has grown used to it, if such a thing is possible. At least he has gotten very talented at hiding the pain. And the scars. They mustn't see the scars.  _She_  mustn't see the scars.

For after all he loves her, and he is so incredibly proud of her. How can he not be? She is strong, beautiful, powerful, proud and wise. She is everything he is not but wishes he was. What his parents wished he was.

But he isn't, he's second-rate. Second-best. The shadow that makes her shine all the brighter. And he loves her. But she must never see the scars.

The very first time he cut, he did it on his arm. He still wears the scar, although now it is only a thin white line. It had felt so good, all the pain and hurt pouring out with the red. But then  _she_ had asked him where he had got it, and she must never know the truth. So he had lied to her. The very first time he ever told her a lie, and she didn't notice. She never notices.

She loves him, in her own way. But she, too, is too blinded by her own radiant light to see.

He has other scars, well hidden beneath his clothes. The inside of his thighs are a mass of pale white lines, so are the soles of his feet and palms of his hands. But they aren't noticed. Sometimes he wishes that they were. That he, for once, wouldn't stand in her shadow.

So he carves another scar into his palm, watching the red form a letter. A letter that says everything. And nothing. It means nothing to anyone else, for he is second-rate and she is so radiant. He looks at it. It says everything.

K.

And she shines.


End file.
